Poster Session 2 - R12
1,2Aisha Mohamed, 1,2Theresa Chow, 1,2Tonya Bongolan, 1,2Amanda Fantin, 1Jennifer Whiteley, 1,2,3Ian Rogers
1. Mount Sinai Hospital, LTRI, Toronto, Canada; 2. Department of Physiology University of Toronto, Canada; 3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Toronto, Canada
The advent of iPSCs have created a tremendous potential in the field of cell-based therapies due to the cells ability to differentiate into any cell type in the body. Previous reprogramming protocols utilized the use of viral vectors and transgenes which have been shown to cause random insertional mutagenesis, reactivation of transgenes and tumorigenesis. As such the introduction of integration-free methods has helped negate some of these issues resulting in a safer final iPSC population. Umbilical cord tissue mesenchymal stromal cells (CT-MSCs) are a desirable donor cell source as their collection is non-invasive and they are a young source of cells that have not yet accumulated environmental DNA damage. Ultimately, we are interested in harnessing the episomal reprogramming method to generate safe, clinically relevant, cost effective stem cells for therapy and drug discovery. The cells were transfected using the neon transfection system with non-integrating plasmids which employs the reprogramming factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, LMYC and LIN28A combined with P53 knock-down (shP53). Our lab has shown that iPSCs can be successfully generated from CT-MSCs using the non-integrative episomal 5 reprogramming method. Furthermore, the generated iPSCs lines were characterized through i) karyotyping and ii) stain for pluripotency markers (Oct-3/4, SOX2, Nanog) and iii) formation of embryoid bodies and teratomas. This research aims to create clinical grade iPSC to be used as a standard therapy for disease treatment in regenerative medicine and to highlight how established cord tissue banks could serve as the scientific model for how iPSCs lines could be banked and distributed in the future.